AP Government and Politics Polling Assignment

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In an effort to develop an understanding about the "science" of polling, you are going to construct a poll of your own creation. Follow the following steps in order to create an fair, balanced, and accurate poll that will be distributed to the school.

The Assignment

1. Each group of five needs select a name for your polling organization (something snazzy and not idiotic, please).
2. Each "organization" will then focus on five interesting topics that you will ask to the people you will be polling. To help, each group should focus on an issue from each of the following groupings...
   • A Political Issue (the election, approval rating, interest in the election, etc.)
   • A Current Event (something non-political in nature)
   • A School Issue (issue that you think would be interesting to present to Mr. Bedford)
   • A Social Issue (television watching, sports interest, popularity of something, etc.)
   • A Morality Issue (abortion, racism, gay rights, etc.)
3. After the issues have been chosen, pick your position in the group. Each person will have a role toward the creation of your final project, which will count for a grade in the Second Marking Period. For homework, read the article you are assigned and prepare to give a summary to the members of your group next class period. The roles (and the cooresponding articles) are..
   • The Creator (who will be tasked with creating the look, formating, and questions of your poll)
     • Read at least two of the following about how wording can modify a result: Education, Gay Marriage, Abortion
   • The Sampler (who will be tasked with selecting how the poll with be distributed to create an accurate sample)
     • Read this article: http://www.westgroupresearch.com/research/margin.html
     • Then use this graph to determine the best way to create an accurate poll given the population of the school (around 1,700)
   • The Number Cruncher (who will be tasked with counting up the overall results and the demographic breakdowns)
     • Read this article: http://whyfiles.org/009poll/glossary.html
   • The Presentation Department (who will be tasked with organizing a PowerPoint presentation to present to the class)
     • Read these two articles: http://whyfiles.org/009poll/poll_principles.html and http://whyfiles.org/009poll/poll_principles2.html
   • Public Relations Director (who will be tasked with presenting your groups findings)
     • Read this article: http://www.cal.org/twi/EvalToolkit/7how2present.htm
4. After discussing your roles:
   • help "The Creator" come up with non-leading questions for your five topics
   • help "The Sampler" decide the best way to gather a demographically representative sample
   • help "The Number Cruncher" develop at least three demographic questions for the poll
5. Scoring based on:
   • The Creator - What the poll looks like.
   • The Sampler - Demographic profile plan-of-attack, predicted margin of error
   • The Number Cruncher - Raw results overall and by the three demographics
   • The Presentation Department - What the presentation looks like
   • The PR Director - How the oral report to the class goes

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Past Examples of Polls:

• 2004:
• 2005: